A Different Childhood
by crazysophie11
Summary: Sirius takes Harry from the Durlseys, so he can raise him himself. Will they survive the mayhemRated T just incase
1. The Letters

**Okay I know this has been done many times before, I just hope I can make it my own :) **

**There are a few things you may recognise like the main letter, before you ask NO I have not copied it from someone else I in fact copied it from myself. When I posted it I had a different account and have since created a new one.**

**Oh and sorry if I spell any of the character names wrong**

**dream**

**Anyway hope you enjoy**

**The letters**

A high pitched scream came from the front door of number four Privit Drive, it was Petunia Dursley. Just moments before hand, she had opened the front door expecting the usual 4pints of milk but instead she was welcome with a baby. As soon as this babies eyes, she was filled with disgust; it was one of hers, one of them.

Still shocked and filled with hatred, she decided to bring the baby inside just in case the neighbours started asking questions. By the time this thing had been brought inside, Vernon had managed to drag himself down the stairs, to find out what on earth had been going on. He was shocked to see a baby, it then hit him.

"Is it hers" he whispered

"Yes" Petunia simply answered. As she said this, Vernon looked like he was going to explode.

"That thing is going this instant" he fumed.

It was then when Petunia noticed a letter; she horridly picked it up and ripped it open.

It read…….

**Dear Mr & Mrs Dursley & your son Dudley**

Firstly I would like to send my condolences to Petunia, on the loss of your sister Lily; she was a great witch and an extremely nice person.

On Halloween, your sister and her husband where murdered by a Wizard called Voldermort, I am deeply would yet again like to send my condolences to you and your letter, I like many other people will miss Lily and her husband, James, but she will me missed more greatly by her family, as will be James.

This is where Harry comes in, he also was almost killed, but he survived, because of Lily's love for him. I have decided to leave Harry with you because you are his closest relatives and I am sure you will look after him as your own, I also do not want him growing up in a place where everyone knows him.

Like I have already said I want you to look after him and treat him like he is your own son. But also in time I want you to tell him his parents, and of course Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry, the school he will be attending.

As well as this I would like you to tell him anything else you think is of importance, including more about his world, and also how when he does finally 'enter the barrier' into his world, how everyone will know his name, and also why this is.

I have performed some magic which will help protect Harry during his childhood and also mot of his teenage years, this spell is quite difficult to explain. So I will try and put it simply, basically if you let Harry return at least once a year until he is sixteen, ad then once more before his seventeenth birthday, this magic will help protect him against Voldermort.

I will once more say how sorry I am for the loss of your sister. I would also like to wish you good luck in the future.

I should not be in contact with you until it is time to send Harry is letter, which will be his 'invite' to our school'

Wishing you the very best in the future

Yours sincerely

Albus Dumbledore

p.s I will know if you have followed my 'instructions'.

"You mean we have to keep him" growled Vernon, "

I'm having none of this he's going NOW!"

"But they could ki ki kill us" squeaked Petunia.

It was at that moment another letter came, which was quite unusual for a Sunday, but what made it more unusual was that it came flying through one of the open windows. They once again opened it……

Dear Petunia,

There's been a change in plan. Harry will not be staying with you, but in fact me; I was a good friend of both Lily and James. I am Harry's godfather and legal guardian. I will arrive tonight at 8 sharp, so be ready. When I arrive I will not have time to explain so I will do now. If anyone comes after I have taken Harry to discover he's not with you say Wormtail took him, they will know what you mean. Tell no one of this letter, burn it once you have read, as for Harry's own safety no one can know where he is. Do not worry you are in no danger.

Padfoot

With that the letter was burnt on the already raging fire, and preparations for that night began.

Young Harry Potter was still oblivious to what was going on around; he had no idea that is parents were dead and that he'd never see them again. His innocent eyes soon closed, and his nightmares began.

_'There you are', said Voldemort,' why don't you just go I only want Harry.' A shiver went down Lily's spine. _

'_No please, not Harry' cried Lily. _

'_Get out the way you filthy mudblood'. _

'_I won't let you kill him, help will be here, and they will kill you'._

'_No one can kill me' he laughed,' now let me kill him'. _

'_No please not Harry', Lily begged. _

'_Just get out the way you stupid girl, and I will spare you your life'. _

'_No I won't let you kill my baby boy' _

'_Have to your way you didn't need to die, but' cried Voldemort, 'Avada Kedavra'. _

_A jet of green light shot out of Voldemort's wand, it hit Lily in the stomach, it seemed to take an age for her to fall to the ground, as her life was unfairly taken away from her. As her final cries faded away, Voldemort once again laughed, his traditional laugh._

'_Now it's your turn' he said, as he walked over to Harry, he then raised his wand to Harry's forehead. _

'_This will be easy' he said smugly, 'Avada Kedavra'. _

_A green light shot out of his wand' as it was about reach Harry, what seemed to be and invisible shield appeared around Harry, and the spell was rebounded. It headed straight towards Voldemort. Then suddenly there was a blinding light, Voldemort got lifted off his feet, as he shot backwards against the wall. The house collapsed around them, the light started to fade away in the night sky._

The almost silent house was soon filled with screaming and wailing, Petunia sprinted into the lounge and attempted to quieten the young boy, but he just wouldn't stop. Vernon snatched Harry away from Petunia, and thundered towards the cupboard under the stairs. That was where he stayed for the rest of the day, no light, no food, and no love just the blackness of the cupboard. However much he screamed or cried he was just ignored, it would have been impossible to tell what was going through the young boys mind. Had his mummy and daddy abandoned him? Did they hate him? Although so young, innocent and unable to speak yet, Harry could already feel all of this, think all of this. Unsure what it meant he could think and feel it.

"I just want my mummy and daddy" he thought.

**Hope you enjoyed, please review and tell me how I can improve, or just any hints for later on in the story. **

**Updates may be slow; it really depends on how much homework I get.**

**Also when you review please can you say whether you think Lupin should help Sirius raise Harry, or should he be raised in secrete, with just Sirius. Or if you think another character should help raise Harry I'm fine with that.**


	2. Meeting

**Chapter Two, I'm not overly happy with and may redo it later on, unless you guys really dislike it. If you do I will redo it straight away. **

**Meeting**

At around 6'oclock just two hours before the mysterious Padfoot arrived, Harry was finally removed from the cupboard under the stairs. As he was lifted he began to stir, his big emerald eyes opened, and Petunia looked away in what seemed to be disgust. But deep down she knew that she had always been jealous of Lily, ever since her 11th birthday. The day the letter arrived. Ever since Lily had decided to go to that school Petunia had acted so awfully to Lily, she regretted this now, and now she could not make it up to her. It was too late, she was gone. Forever gone. Just maybe she thought just maybe she could somehow secretly keep in contact, with the only remaining part of Lily, Harry.

Shaking that thought out of her head she got on with what she was meant to be doing, which was bathing Harry. Surprisingly her and Vernon had decided to bathe and feed Harry, just in case this Padfoot person decided to harm them or there beautiful little Dudley, otherwise know as Dudders. Being careful not to burn him, Petunia checked the water in the little bath tub, before she placed Harry in it. The water was lukewarm. "Perfect" she thought.

After bathing and drying Harry, Petunia decided to clothe him is some of Dudley's old clothes, although a bit big it was better than him wearing clothes which by the sounds of it hadn't been changed for two days.

Once she had finished doing this it was only 6:30, making it pretty obvious Harry would of finished eating way before his godfather arrived, meaning she didn't have much choice but to allow Harry and her precious Dudder's to play together.

"Hopefully Vernon won't find out about this" she mumbled.

At first Dudley was a reluctant to share any of his toys, and every time Harry even looked at them he got punched. This was until Petunia took him away and had a little talk to him, saying it was only for a little bit. Even though he was still a bit reluctant for a short amount of time after this little chat, they soon began to play with each other. After around half and hour, Petunia decided to give them dinner. For Petunia this was a very challenging affair, feeding Dudley was bad enough but both of them, it was impossible. By the time they had finished most of the food was on Petunia, luckily for her though at least never of them needed a bath.

Thinking it would be okay to leave them unsupervised for a little bit, she went up to have a shower. Just moments after getting into the shower, she heard the front door slam.

"Petunia, PETUNIA" shouted Vernon

She raced down the stairs with her towel securely wrapped round her.

"Yes Vernon"

"WHY is this FREAK playing with MY son, he ma may get infected with that horrid curse your sister brought among us"

"I played with my sister many times, and I don't have any freakish powers"

With that Vernon stormed out the house, slamming the door behind him and leaving both boys looking very confused.

It was quickly approaching 8'oclock and Petunia was starting to get worried. What if this is a trick? What if this person kills us all? What if he takes Dudley as well? So many what ifs but she knew that her questions and worries would only be answered when the time came. One minute to eight, only sixty seconds till he was meant to arrive. 10 seconds. 8 seconds. 4 seconds. 1 second. A black scraggy looking dog began to bark just outside the window as the Grandfather clock starting chiming. As Petunia opened the front door and about to tell the dog to shoo, it darted past her and straight into the lounge where Harry was sitting.

"Padfoo" he suddenly shouted.

"I should have known….." began Petunia, but stopped in shock as the dog began to transform.

"Nice to meet you again" said Sirius.

"You, your that madman from the wedding" replied Petunia, "I knew I had heard that name before.

Sirius couldn't help but to burst out laughing, even though he was still grieving the death of his friends and in some ways the brother he never had. He knew that they would both want people to be happy and not grieve over their deaths.

"Umm yeh sorry about that, I was a little drunk at the time" laughed Sirius, "but I'm much more mature and sensible now. I will look after your nephew to the best of my abilities".

Petunia just nodded.

"Must be off them"

Just as Sirius was about to apparate, Petunia stopped him and gave him an envelope, telling him to give it to Harry when he was old enough.

Sirius grabbed the envelope giving her his word, and with a pop he and Harry where both gone.

When they arrived at there destination he was still waving with his pink little hand.

"Padfoo see them again" cried Harry

Although he knew this was probably far from the truth at this moment in time, Sirius told him soon.

Meanwhile back at 4 Privit Petunia was comforting an upset Dudley, telling him like Sirius, soon you will see him soon. Petunia herself had tears in her eyes, realising that may have been the last time she saw he nephew, that she saw a part of Lily. She realised he probably wouldn't even remember meeting her, his only auntie. She just hoped that one day she would see him again, or maybe just talk to him.

"I can't lose contact with him forever, I just can't. He's the only bit of Lily left and I love him, maybe just as much a Dudley" she thought none stop to herself, until her furious Husband got home.

Later that night while Sirius was putting Harry to bed, Harry asked the question Sirius had been dreading.

"Padfoo when mummy, daddy hom"

Sirius sighed, not quite knowing how to explain death to a 15month old child.

**Okay first of all I would like to thank you guys for the great reviews for the first chapter, and I hope you haven't been too disappointed with this one. And also im not sure about how much a 15month old child can speak, so correct me if im completely out**

**Ive been thinking and what would you say to a one-shot to what happened when Vernon came home, as it may come in later in the story. So maybe giving you guys a sneak peak of what's to come.**

**Or maybe a -one shot of Petunia true feeling about her sister, maybe in the form of a letter.**

**Ive decided Petunia may play a bigger part in this fanfic later on depending what you lot think, also all though it's a long way off yet, just in case I do a sequel for when Harry starts Hogwarts. Should Dudley go ??? And what house would you want them to be in, as this would help me with their personalities. **

**I think that's all, and once again thanks for the reviews. Keep on reviewing and I will keep on writing. :) **


	3. Chapter 3

I am so sorry for the long wait; I've found it difficult to write this chapter, for many reasons including the Homework which I seem to be getting a lot of. Every time I finished a piece more seemed to just appear. I guess it paid off with my geography homework :). I've also had to write a short story for English and I was getting confuzzled between the two stories even though they are completely different, and the a poem for history which I'll put on my profile because I kinda like it :), and more…..

So anyway sorry about the long wait, I guess this chapter is ok I wasn't sure which order I should put the different parts in.

Im guessing the Hogwarts Express arrives just after eight, but if it doesn't it does now :).

So here it is…….

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Chapter 3: Discussions

The students at Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry were just returning from the extra holiday Dumbledore had granted them after the fall of Voldemort on Halloween. For most, it was not much of a holiday because even though You Know Who, had finally been defeated, there was still so much to morn about. So many people had lost family and friends, so while many were off celebrating, many remained at home to morn the loss of friends and family during the war. Many people who were out celebrating felt that, something was missing from inside of them, something that could never be replaced, on the outside these people were happy, but on the inside these people were depressed. The war may have been over, but it was not forgotten. Those who were lost in the war were still being mourned for.

As Dumbledore scanned over the students as they entered the Great Hall, he realised this, the look of great sadness and regret on so many of his student's faces, was not something that he would easily forget, it was something that Voldemort had caused. It was something that he may well cause again.

After the final few students took their seats at the appropriate tables, Dumbledore arose from his seat, at the centre of the staff table. All the eyes in the room, from student, to Ghost to teacher, turned towards Dumbledore and waited expectantly. No one in the room not even Dumbledore himself, knew what he was going to say.

"Welcome back, even though it's only been three days, I'm sure much has happened in that time, and that you have a lot to think about or to discuss with your friends. As you know we decided to give you the three days holiday because of the fall of Voldemort."

Dumbledore paused as students along with many teachers shuddered at the name.

"We felt that it was a time for you to spend with your family and to celebrate your victory. I know that many of you have lost friends and family in this war and that you are still mourning the deaths of them, I can understand why but please try and celebrate. Those that have died in this war, would want you to look forward, and to get on with your life, they would want you to be happy. They will never be forgotten, you will always remember them, but you can be happy when you remember them, you can think of the good times you had with them, as well as the bad. Just think of the time you got to spend with them no matter how long or short, it will be difficult but we know you can do it. Hogwarts is a caring community and I'm we are all willing to help one an other through difficult times like this. We are always here for you, if you ever need to talk."

Once again Dumbledore paused, but this time to let the students take in what had been said. After a few minutes he continued.

"I would also like to add that the Forbidden Forest, is still Forbidden, even though Voldemort is gone and most of the Death Eaters captured, there are still many dangers out their in the forest. Once you have finished eating you are more then welcome to leave, I've got nothing else to add"

With that Dumbledore clapped his hands and as the food appeared he sat down.

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"_Padfoo when mummy, daddy hom"_

_Sirius sighed, not quite knowing how to explain death to a 15month old child._

"Harry, mummy and daddy are not coming home" whispered Sirius.

"I do bad, wrong" Harry mumbled.

Sirius pulled Harry into a protective hug; tears began to roll down his face as he thought of how James and Lily would have explained death, to such a young and innocent child.

"You did nothing wrong or bad, they did not want to leave you" explained Sirius, "but they had to, they're in Heaven now.

"Clouds"

"Yes clouds"

"Me see mummy and daddy again"

"Not for a long time, but they will always be there, watching over you and protecting you"

Unsure, of how much Harry had actually understood of what had been said, Sirius but Harry to bed. After doing this he sat down on the chair which he had placed next to Harry's cot earlier on in the day, this was where he remained till morning. He began to contemplate what he had said to Harry and also about the future and how he would then explain what had happened on Halloween. It was a question he knew would one day be asked, and when it was he would be unable to avoid it, this would leave him with no choice but to relive the worst day of his life.

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Just as the first students began to leave the Great Hall, after a splendid meal which had earlier been prepared by the house elves at Hogwarts, an owl swooped into the hall. All eyes in the hall lay upon the owl as it elegantly glided towards the staff table. As the owl dropped a letter in front of Dumbledore, the pupils standing quickly sat back down; worried it may be connected to Voldemort.

All the colour in Dumbledore's went, as he scanned through the letter, without warning he quickly exited the hall with several teachers in hot pursuit. A collective gasp could be heard in the hall, as the students began to discuss with their friends what might have happened.

Meanwhile in Dumbledore's office the teachers stood in shock as the letter was re-read.

"So Harry's missing" said McGonagall "Yes that may well be the case" calmly stated Dumbledore. "Potters always seem to be able to create trouble" Snape sneered. "Well Severus I was hoping you'd make a quick visit to Privit Drive, to see if he is there or not" "What why me, why not Minerva" "That is because we have thing to discuss, I also advise you to change to some muggle clothes. I heard they don't take to kindly to our kind" With that Snape stormed out of the office, he could be heard cursing under his breath. Sorry about the shortness, i'll try and make the next chapter longer. I was gonna do the part where Snape met the Dursley's but I decided to just post this, as I haven't updated in a while. Next Chapter: Snape meets the Durlsey's. The newspaper article. The hunt begins. It may include Remus. And also Sirius, Harry. But I haven't decided on that yet. Anyway hope you enjoyed and please review 


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